Problems with svchost.exe

[satyrical]

I know what svchost.exe is for in Windows XP, and normally the multiple instances of it run at around 7,000k of memory on my computer. That usage on every instance of it has shot up to the mid-30,000s of memory, and it's slowing my machine down. I did a virus scan and still it's high up. Anyone know what could be causing this, or how I can bring it back to its normal levels?

Thanks.

 

[DLGrif]

There is plenty of information about SVCHost on the internet. From wrangling with it myself, all I can say is that if you start ending those processes, eventually you trigger a shutdown timer. Also, viruses like to use rundll and svchost to hide themselves. Use a variety of scanners if you're paranoid: AVG and Avast are personal favorites. Go into msconfig and look through the "Services" tab. My biggest SVCHost instance is currently 26,236KB. SVCHost being a resource hog isn't a problem, but a symptom. Find the real problem.

 

[Spiro910]

I believe you need a new computer. This happened to me with an old computer I had (it had 256MB ram and a pent 2 processor, pretty under average), svchost.exe would start using 99% of my CPU and would stop about an hour later (or sometimes, never). This did stop when I got myself a new computer.

My highest svchost.exe instance is using 34,492 KB of memory atm, and the total commit charge in my computer is 457M / 2459M.

 

[kite]

i keep my processes low and memory small. if you go to black viper's page: Windows XP Home and Professional Service Pack 2 Service Configurations by Black Viper
then it'll show you what you can possibly disable and such to lower your memory and cpu usage. do that, use ccleaner, and run S&D spybot (or whatever choice of malware/spyware program you choose), then defrag to save yourself the hassle of reinstalling your OS.